Musings Re Facebook Tint

This period has heard a call to be true to one's self. There is an outcry to SPEAK. We are encourage to speak our truth, to voice out our opinion, to push our ideologies. Thus, anywhere in the internet we can read anything and everything, from the most important to the very trivial. Maybe it's good because it allows us to tell our stories and be a part of something and aid change.

However, in that wake, we are in haste to belong. Maybe on some cases we resonate to the cause (whatever that may be) and, the idea in which it has been founded echoes our sentiment. That's good because we have companies to rally with. Strength in numbers, shared ethos and zealousness - the very same factors that usher the movement of extremists - are fundamental requirements that drive a revolution.

In this era where everything seems seamlessly connected and the line of true identity that separates one from the rest is blurred, how do we sift the revolutionists from the junkies who just choose to belong "just because". Should we identify ourselves to what's popular, what's trending, what's common...because, you know, status quo and oh, "I'm doing it because everybody's doing it!". Blah. I sometimes wonder which is more tragic, being well-informed or being blissfully ignorant, being highly sensitive or being indifferent. If there's no absolute truth, there is no such thing then as rightful indignation?

I would leave the musings as they are rather than explain in long narrative my stance on the (no) Facebook tinted profile picture (in my opinion it promoted divisiveness), which the musings alluded to. Restrain is acutely painful when you have a lot to say. But sometimes, being unobtrusive is more empowering than being very opinionated. 

For Paris, For Beirut, For Baghdad, For Humanity

For the cities that are covered in dark terror right now, my thoughts and prayers are with you.

For the families and friends of the innocent victims, I pray for peace and strength.

To the citizens of Iraq, Lebanon, France, the rest of the world who value peace and security are with you against terrorism.

I don't know what to say. How do you comfort the people who are suffering? Maybe for someone who can imagine the horror, being empathetic will quite do? So despicable of terrorists to feed on other people's fear and anguish. What makes it especially disturbing to me is that Christmas is coming and the families and friends of the innocent victims are going to spend the holiday mourning for the loved ones they lost. It is painful to lose someone you know is dying, but suddenly losing someone from a contemptible act  is beyond forgivable. I pray they will heal in time.

This world is hurting and more divided than ever. We are living with the hell we create. 

It's Already Chrismassy In The Pearl Of The Orient!

Officially, Christmas in the Philippines starts on September 1st, the beginning of the BER months. Every FM and AM station plays Christmas songs daily from September 1 until the New Year. Department stores display Christmas decorations along side costumes and spooky decors for Halloween as early as October. At this time, the streets are already teeming with carolers. Some street children get in the public vehicles (jeepneys, please see the image) to appeal on passengers' good hearts with their voices. Their set list includes both Christmas songs and current English and Filipino hits. The older carolers, on the other hand, visit houses and business establishments with their instruments. 

The Philippines, I think, is the only country in the world that celebrates a looooong Christmas, which, every Filipino living abroad always misses. So, I'll be posting updates as the season progresses because I just love Christmas! Who doesn't?

The giant Christmas tree in SM City Cebu.

SM Christmas Village of Hope

For the background story of SM Christmas Village of Hope, please follow these links: 

http://kythe.org/site/blog/2013/11/27/clayton-joji-tugonons-cebu-christmas-village-of-hope/

http://specials.sunstar.com.ph/communitynews/2015/11/05/sm-city-cebu-unveils-christmas-village/

And for detailed photographs of some of the miniature scenes, you can check here.

Books + look/feel of Christmas = my kind of a happy place.  Double happiness.

Inside my sister's university.

Maybe I Like Being Human

Maybe I like being a little broken, with some parts of me slowly mending, while other parts are waiting for their sunshine. Maybe I like picking up the pieces, finding the right parts to fit into the jagged ones. Maybe I like the fragments that sum me up. Maybe I like being flawed, disfigured, imperfect.

Maybe I like the discomforts. Maybe I like the insanity, the chaos, the uncertainty of existing. Maybe I am perverse. Maybe I am abnormal. Maybe I am anomalous. Maybe I like my own warped reason. Maybe I like being the odd. The strange. The inimitable. Maybe I like being simple. Maybe I like being complicated. Maybe I like going through the phases. Maybe I like the cycle of it.

Maybe I like the gloominess. Maybe I like groping in the dark. Maybe I like the breaking of dawn. Maybe I like braving the raging storm. Maybe I like controlling the broken wheel. Maybe I like the wrench in the gut. Maybe I like smoothing my knotted innards. Maybe I like the slowness of the process.

Maybe I like the struggles. Maybe I like pulling my messy hair. Maybe I like sinking my nails in the mud. Maybe I like crawling with my hands and knees on rocks, on hard floors, on walls. Maybe I like banging my head on the wall, or burying them in the sand. Maybe I like the battle. Maybe I like being scarred.

Maybe I like beating the odds. Maybe I like the power of bearing the inconvenience. Maybe I like the adrenaline high from jumping over the hurdles. Maybe I like the challenge of putting my puzzles together. Maybe I like the breakthroughs.

Maybe I like being stationary. Maybe I like pushing my limits. Maybe I like conventional. Maybe I like surprises. Maybe I like being in control. Maybe I like being stirred. Maybe I like docility. Maybe I like running wild free. Maybe I like being a sinner. Maybe I like living with a virtue.

Maybe I like being alone. Maybe I like walking in the crowd. Maybe I like to get what I see. Maybe I like the madness of second-guessing. Maybe I like monotony. Maybe I like the roller coaster ride. Maybe I like banalities. Maybe I like novelties.

Maybe I like being funny. Maybe I like the sarcasm. Maybe I like being silly. Maybe I like being proper. Maybe I like being emotional. Maybe I like being unfazed.

Maybe I like to tear me apart. Maybe I like the death of who I was. Maybe I like to mold me. Maybe I like to recreate me. Maybe I like the agony of my rebirth. Maybe I like the multiplicity in me. Maybe I like spreading myself. Maybe I like making me whole. Maybe I like boxing myself in. Maybe I like to let loose. Maybe I like being on the ground. Maybe I like to fly. Maybe I like being home. Maybe I like being out in the world.

Maybe I like being consistent. Maybe I like being a paradox. Maybe I like the black holes in my existence. Maybe I like the explosion of my inner universe. Maybe I like my own perfectly imperfect world. Maybe I like being human. Maybe, I like it excessively. 

The Universe Is In You, In Us

The big bang theory was based on the idea that at some point in time, a matter exploded to create the universe and it continues to expand. There is also the idea that like everything else observable that reaches its edge, the universe could suffer the same feat. The universe would collapse. Everything would just be vacuum back to where it began in one big whoosh, which the Physicists theorized as the big crunch. [OR – other possible scenarios according to moi- the gravity that holds everything together would be loose and everything becomes a chaos of bouncing matters, colliding against each other, or everything just stops there at that moment and drops to nothingness. ]

It was during this discussion that my Physics teacher brought up Retin-A, you know, the anti-aging treatment cream. He said the cream is only treating the outer skin, erasing or minimizing wrinkles. Constantly applying it also means a thickening of sagging skin tissues underneath. He was scared about the reverse effect, that the treatment would lose its effectivity and that all the wrinkly tissues would just resurface at once. I think he worried unnecessarily (though it was understandable). Matter ultimately ages no matter what we do.

But we try to suspend, prevent, and delay aging.  Thus, the Botox, face lifting, acupuncture and I am not sure what else is there in the market. Good for those who can afford it, bad for those who cannot. We put so much value on beauty, which leads me to…

I was reading Philosophy of Man (POM) few days ago. I was in the part where the author highlighted the contributions of the three Greek philosophers in history, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. There were also some facts about their lives. One was unnecessary and totally off (considering the entire philosophical contents of POM [why the eff is there an auto link to something when I write t-h-e-b-o-o-k???] ) the #2 of this:

“Said to be an ugly woman”. Said to be…it was not even a hard-core fact. Tsk. Tsk.

No wonder a lot feels insecure even where they are beautiful. No wonder everyone is clamoring to be physically beautiful. No one wants to be immortalized in history as ugly.

You are what inside matters. You have the universe in you with all your mysteries and beauties. If they could not see that, they must be in their own black hole. 

There will always be different concepts of beauty. For a while, forget what you see, forget what you were told, forget about the concept of beauty. For a while, dwell on what Neil DeGrasse Tyson said:

"The universe is in us.

The very atoms of your body—the iron, calcium, phosphorus, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen—were initially forged in long-dead stars. This is why, when you stand outside under a moonless, country sky, you feel some ineffable tugging at your innards. We are star stuff."

Science is freakingmazing and I am always awestruck by the Creator of us. 

Considering the elements you are made of and the intangible building blocks (thoughts, dreams, ambition, character, wisdom, etc.) that make you who you are and the evolution you go through as a person, heck, you are very beautiful. Don't forget that.

Tricky Treat O' Lemony Sneak It

I am a HUGE fan of Claire Robinson and her 5-ingredient fix. She said this line: You can be your own chef. That, plus Julia Child’s encouragement: The only real stumbling block is fear of failure; in cooking you've got to have a "what-the-hell" attitude. As far as embarking on culinary adventure is concern, they echo my sentiment. Yes, they echo my sentiment and not the other way around. LOL.

If you had seen Any Given Sunday (one of my favorite movies, mainly because of Al Pacino’s punchy lines…tmi), the character of Dennis Quaid said this famous line to Willie Beamen: See it before you do it. That line seemed to have been integrated into my preparation before I dive into something for the first time. A conditioning of some kind. It seems very applicable when it comes to cooking, because you know, who wants to waste ingredients. That being said, I thought of making a sweet treat from combining lemon, lemon grass and coconut cream. The idea came from Dove’s body wash, the one with lemongrass and lemon scent. I love it so much that I thought of translating it into dessert. Lol. But I was not able to fully imagine the taste in my head, yet.

Nevertheless, minus the lemon grass, I cooked up a jellied dessert of lemon and coconut cream. I try to make it with five ingredients (call me a copycat, lol):

1 cup of Coconut Cream

1 cup of Evaporated Milk

½ cup Refined Sugar

1 pc of Lemon

1 ½ tbsp of yellow gelatin

¼ cup Evaporated Milk (to dissolve the gelatin)

1 tsp Lemon zest

Coconut is abundant in my country. But for the purpose of measurement and availability (in consideration of foreigners or another Filipino residing abroad who will fearlessly dare to try this) of Coconut Cream, I used the canned.

Whisk together the coconut cream and evaporated milk in a pan. Add sugar until dissolved. You can adjust the amount of sugar according to your preferred sweetness. Squeeze the juice of first half of the lemon. Taste and adjust to your preferred acidity. The acidity should balance the sweetness of the sugar. Add the lemon zest. Pour in the dissolved gelatin to the mixture and whisk to combine. When ready, put in the fire and slowly stir for about 5-10 minutes. Do not let it boil too much. The coconut cream reacts to heat and heat may tamper the properties of the cream, making the natural oil separates from it and changes the taste. When done, transfer to a molder or set it in glasses (like I did). Let it cool for few minutes before you put it in the refrigerator to chill.

This recipe is still in development. I have yet to incorporate the lemon grass, to try using cream (maybe the all purpose, because it is widely available in my country), to scrap out the gelatin and to use the fresh coconut cream. I will update when I can.

For now, it is called Coconut Lemon Gulaman. Hope you guys are having a Happy Halloween!!! J

STK Ta Bay! Paolito's Seafood House

My brother, two cousins and I, had dinner in another SuTuKil (Sugba-Tula-Kilaw) type of restaurant, STK ta Bay. It is in A. Climaco Street (former Orchid Street), Capitol Site, Cebu City. They have two buildings, one is next-door neighbor of Bucket Shrimp (read the blog entry here) and the other one is across the street.

We first went inside the newer building, but all the tables were taken, so we crossed the street to check if there were vacant tables in the other building. If there were none, we would have ended in Bucket Shrimp (which was originally the plan where to have dinner). Thank God, there was a vacant table for four! My concern was how long it would take the food to arrive, because I was so famished! We did not have to wait long. Good sigh.

I was sure my eyes popped out of their sockets when I noticed the decorations. All over the area, on shelves and walls, antiques were displayed neatly. I was like, “Oh my god, we had those and those and those…” mentally pointing at the objects I had seen in my childhood. Old transistor radios! Gas lamps! Manual sewing machine! Wooden wall clocks! Old telephones! I did some jumping jacks in my head and felt like a five year old taking them all in, like I was knowing them for the first time. Lol.

Rock, rock, 'round the clock!

My heart sang when I (finally) noticed that most of the furniture are made of wood. I hope I did not look like a fish with the mouth open. Lol. Boy, the old soul in me was so glad being in a room filled with woods and old articles.

Uh, she's doing what I was doing. Look, green telephone!

There were long rectangular tables that could seat 10-12 persons. From near us, was a circular table that seated six persons. Most of the tables are for four persons. They also have tables outside, if you want to dine al fresco.

1.) My shy cousin. 2.) One of the long tables. 3.) Window panels are made of wood and Capiz shells.

We had Grilled Tuna Panga (Grilled Tuna Jaw), Fish Tinola (Fish Soup), Kinilaw with Gata (Raw Fish Salad with Coconut Cream), Guso Salad (Eucheuma Seaweed Salad ) and 2 platters of plain rice (I learned later that their Bagoong Fried Rice was to die for…maybe next time).

Kinilaw with Gata

Grilled Tuna Panga

Guso Salad

Fish Soup. The one we had was loaded with alugbati leaves (Malabar spinach)

I have to say that the four-person table was a bit small for four persons. With 2 platters of rice, (understandable) huge plate of grilled fish, fish stew in a wider bowl (that took most of the space), two servings of fresh starters, 1.5 liter of Coke, glasses, saucers (for the sauce) and condiments, our table was packed! Another caution, you have to ask for table napkins because there was none on the table (maybe it was just our table... maybe an overlook [a slight one you can brush off] on their part... maybe it just happened at that time...).

We had a quick dinner because my brother was going to work and I was so hungry I kept on eating until I had my fill (don't judge me, lol), so I was not able to take pictures of our little feast. But it kinda looked like this:

Some plateful experience.

STK ta Bay has a wide selection in the menu list. It is open from 8 A.M.  to 10 P.M.

The interior decoration, I could not fully describe it with my words. You have to be there to appreciate it and it will be worth your time. I'm sure the diners, local and foreign (that had been there) would agree with me on this. If it happens you want to travel to Cebu City, this place should must be in your list. :)